A management system that manages cartridges as storage media is proposed.
As a management system, a system of the type including an access (take-in/take out) port through which an arbitrary cartridge is put into and ejected from a rack, the rack in which the cartridges are contained, an access (take-in/take-out) device that puts an arbitrary cartridge into the rack and ejects an arbitrary cartridge from the rack on the basis of an instruction, and a control device that controls the operation of the access device is proposed. In addition, a management device that retains information on a rack in which cartridges are contained is proposed.
In a management system as mentioned above, in taking a desired cartridge out of a rack, a user inputs the identification information of the desired cartridge into a management device, and a library management device refers to information on the storage position of the desired cartridge on the basis of the input identification information to acquire information on the storage position of the cartridge and sends the acquired information to an access device.
Then, the access device moves around in the rack, takes out the cartridge which is at the storage position concerned, and carries the cartridge to an access port. Then the user accepts the cartridge so carried through the access port.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2001-225917 is an example of the above mentioned system.
In addition to the above mentioned system configured to take in/out the desired cartridge using the access device, a mechanism that takes in and takes out an arbitrary cartridge by hand is also proposed. A mechanism as mentioned above may have such a drawback that management of cartridges is complicated.